He cannot rely on the russian people by decline in general mobilization, because that will put them in a whole different world. right, now he s trying to limit this, and try to save face as much as possible. ambassador taylor, it s a such a sharp contrast to what we re seeing from president zelenskyy, that powerful video, walking the streets in response to russia s victory day, talking about being a free people. what are you hearing from your contacts in ukraine, about how the government views the war at this point? presidents ellen ski, use this words, he mobilizes his people, and they mobilize him. he really represents them, the ukrainian people are strong, they re tough, they are determined to be free, they are determined to be independent, and he is leading them. he grows on that, he absorbs that, and he projects it. it s a very positive projection, so it s a great combination of president zelenskyy in the
Are announcing some $700 million in military financing. now, the vast majority of that is going to ukraine. but some of it is also going to other central and eastern european american partners. the idea is to finance this new fight in the east along that 300 mile front in the donbas. this is going to pay the american, but also for those soviet-era small arms. which are the bread and butter of what ukrainian military is using every day as they try to resist this russian occupation. now, it is interesting, u.s. officials said that they were basically no hard feelings about the fact that this was supposed to be a top secret trip. but presidents ellen ski announced it in front of the world s media before blinken and austin got there. u.s. officials say it is his country, he can say what he wants. it did not affect the plans.
Presidents ellen ski says the main topic for discussion will be weapons. he wants to explain what his forces need, as a fight on that enormous front in the east. if he wants to explain how quickly they are needed. now, european leaders have been making trips to kyiv for weeks now. this is a very symbolic moment. as the first senior americans arrive, assuming they are indeed on schedule, we don t quite know the itinerary of their trip. president zelenskyy has expressed interest in president biden comes one day, that is not something the white house says will happen anytime soon. ali, you mentioned that deadly missile strike in odessa yesterday. eight people killed, including a young woman named valerie culloden and her three month old baby daughter kira. ali, kira s life was short and i want to give you the timeline. she was born on january 4th, on february 24th the war broke out in her country. and on april 24th she was
Phase. for me, it s a very familiar face. it s what he did in chechnya, it s what he didn t grow his knee. it s what he did in syria, after they invaded there with his air force in 2015, which is going to be, as you ve already seen, they re going to use massive military power, with lots of civilians dying, and putin doesn t care, because he thinks by terrorizing the civilians, he will be able to take control. i think the president was warning us about that. what happens next? the ukrainians are going to fight. i mean, exchanging messages with a close friend of mine in kyiv, who knows the president well presidents ellen ski, and we were talking about those options. one of the things we discussed, would it be worse or better if president zelenskyy was alive in lviv, or arrested or killed
Around us though they are all just rich people and they all live close to putin. it s not true, some oligarchs live in london and have yachts here there and put hates them. and some oligarchs don t live in london, they run gas companies, and we re not seizing their assets, and they want there s other assets of these oligarchs to be seized. so it s the right thing to do, i support sanctions, they re putting a lot of pressure on the russian society. i just think we have to be careful about how we talk about how these kinds of things will actually impact putin and his decision-making. it s not so clear cut the way it works. yeah, and he should be done careful if it s gonna have the impact that it s intended to have. and lassiter mcfaul, i want to press you on what you heard in what was the soaring part of the speech, lifting up presidents ellen ski, who is right now, the world s most visible freedom fighter. the president is so